Recent Additions

This is a collection of my more recent photo additions to various galleries. Because these are linked to the gallery they came from, you may find some of the titles and/or the descriptions a little confusing. Sorry for any confusion/inconvenience in that regard.

After having walked along the lake's edge toward the tree in the distance to shoot the "Winter Morning Peace" image, I returned along generally the same route, leaving these tracks. Making these tracks wasn't intentional, but I like what they add to the image...and the similarity to the following "Squirrel Tracks - There and Back Again" image.

An advantage in winter is the easier spotting of birds of prey as they perch in leafless trees, on power poles, etc., looking for their next meal. While driving from Hastings to Blue Hill, I spotted this eagle (noticed him out of the corner of my eye as a large black silhouette in the tree) about a mile north of where Highway 281 crosses the Little Blue River in south-central Nebraska. He stayed long enough to allow me to turn around, find an advantageous spot to park, get my camera and long lens out and fire off a number of shots through my drivers side window. It was a dull, cold, grey day, but I'm still happy with the end result.

Sherwood Point Lighthouse is off limits to the general public because it is a functioning lighthouse operated by the Coast Guard. Fortunately the entrance to the site got me close enough to catch this colorful shot at dusk. I love puddles, by the way...

Mother Nature put on a colorful show last evening (6/29/2017). I was traveling north on Hwy 281 just north of Doniphan, NE, and pulled off onto a gravel road to try to catch a quick several shots before the colors faded. Thankfully I found this pool of water at the end of a cornfield to add an extra element of interest.

This is looking south toward Doniphan. The white spec on the horizon in the middle of the photo is Doniphan's elevated water tank.

This morning (12/1/2015) I hit the back roads looking for some interesting scenery created by yesterday's snow. I found this scene before clouds moved in for the rest of the day. This is a picture of Rawhide Creek just before its confluence with the Elkhorn River.

This was taken from a dead-end road and looking across Blair High Road, which is one of the reasons very little foreground is seen - there's nothing very attractive about seeing a 4 lane highway. The main points of interest were the sun and clouds anyway, but a little horizon helps provide some degree of scale for this image. It would have been better though to have found a tree or barn or something more identifiable to provide scale for this shot, but sometimes you just have to make do with what's there. (9/06/2015)

As soon as I heard the forecast for thunderstorms this evening, I went exploring for some potentially interesting rural landscapes north of Omaha. This time of year extending into Fall, with the row crops providing interesting texture to the landscape, provides greater potential for interesting compositions/scenes. (9/06/2015)

This is another photograph from south of Hastings, NE. By the time I had driven to a location where there was some kind of compelling foreground element (the grain elevator), the most dramatic clouds had broken up. Regardless, I think this shot is worth sharing.

You think you have it bad? Just imagine being a wild creature having to endure the cold on days like today (1/18/2016) with a high temperature of around 15 degrees F, and most of the day being well below that temperature. These geese were congregated at one end of a pond in Platte River State Park (Nebraska) that had open water. Most of the waterfowl were Canadian Geese, but there was a pair of what appear (based on Wikipedia) to be Greylag geese, which I don't believe are common to the US (again, based on Wikipedia). The greylags didn't appear to be enjoying themselves as much as the Canadians.

Post edit...I've learned that this is a Greylag Barnyard Goose. They originated in Europoe and were domesticated for their meat. Probably brought to North America a long time ago...

For whatever puzzling reason, a squirrel (I'm assuming these are squirrel tracks) apparently felt the need to venture out to check out this twig poking out of the frozen lake. I found it interesting and a bit ironic that just minutes before discovering these tracks and taking this shot, I had similarly left tracks to and back from a distant tree...probably equally puzzling to somebody who sees the tracks later.

There was fog this morning in Omaha, making it time to grab the camera gear to catch a few images at nearby Standing Bear Lake before the fog lifted. This is one of three shots that I am happy with. It was taken looking into the fog shrouded sun.